We never thought we’d be able to afford a house. Then, in 2016, I saw a listing for a rundown place at Queen and Shaw for $499,000. We didn’t want it, but the price made us realize we could maybe do this, and we started searching for real.

Using software and artificial intelligence to transform the real estate transaction is still a viable idea, says the former CEO of a failed Toronto start-up brokerage. Keith McSpurren says TheRedPin, which went into receivership last Thursday, was founded on some sound principles even if its big ambitions of disrupting the real estate industry with technology weren’t realized.

A few cities aside, the housing market in Canada has cooled to a point where prices are either dropping or rising just a little. Yet the temperature is definitely rising in the dialogue about young adults and home ownership.

“Canadian housing market volatility has become acute since the end of 2017,” writes the TD economics team, in a recent note. “Regulatory changes at both the national and provincial level (especially in B.C.) resulted in outsized swings in resale activity.”

“British Columbia has developed a reputation as an attractive place to anonymously invest and hide wealth. Right now in B.C., real estate investors can hide behind numbered companies, offshore and domestic trusts, and corporations,” said Carole James, Minister of Finance.

Much of the attention around affordable housing in the U.S. has tended to focus on cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle—densely built urban areas where land for new housing is in short supply. But most Americans live in suburbs, many of which are seeing rapidly increasing poverty and racial diversity. Here, the need for affordable housing can be just as acute, but the dynamics of the issue are distinct from the urban version—and, often, more complex.

Across the United States, the federal government is responsible for the care of more than 11,200 migrant children in about 100 shelters, which includes the 2,500 removed from their parents in the past five weeks. The rest are youngsters who came across the border alone. It’s a billion-dollar industry that has grown rapidly under the Trump administration’s push to close the border.

According to HPD, the changes will hit on four particular pain points for applicants: reducing the necessary paperwork, making eligibility guidelines more clear, reducing the impact that debt and credit history has on an application, and enacting more protections for survivors of domestic abuse.

Yet, in the 21st century, it is perhaps Asia that will benefit the most from prefabs. The continent is now home to some of the highest rates of population growth and urbanization. The Asia-Pacific region is set to overtake the US as the world's largest prefabricated building market, with a projected growth rate of almost 6% a year between now and 2023, according to a recent report by Market Research Future.

Top Photo Credit: emeliemaria, Getty Images

Realosophy Realty Inc. Brokerage is an innovative residential real estate brokerage in Toronto. A leader in real estate analytics and pro-consumer advice, Realosophyhelps clients make better decisions when buying or selling a home.